LUGOFF - Funeral service for Thelma Jessie Gates, 72, Sunday at 3:00 p.m. at El-Bethel Faith Community with burial to follow in Hardshell Cemetery. The family will receive friends Saturday 6-8 p.m. at Powers Funeral Home. Mrs. Gates, wife of the late Jesse J. Gates, Sr., died Thursday, October 11, 2007. Born in Lugoff, she was a daughter of the late James T. and Margaret Mattox Jackson. She was a member of El-Bethel Faith Community Church and enjoyed spending time with her family and fishing. Surviving are her daughters and sons-in-law, Myra and Paul Cameron , Jr., Vonnie Miles, and Connie and Thomas Wheeler; sons and daughters-in-law, Ricky Branham, Johnnie and Barbara Gates, Thomas and Cynthia Gates, and Jesse Jr. and Linda Gates; grandchildren, Jenny Payne and her husband, Jesse, Kimberly Holman and her husband, Chris, Jesse John “Jay” Gates III, and Niki Gates; great-grandchildren, Brantley Payne, Nicholas Payne, Cameron Payne, and Cason Holman; sisters and brothers-in-law, Jeannette and Sam Branham, and Joyce and Mack Branham; and a brother and sister-in-law, Johnny Edward and Alice Kay Jackson. She was preceded in death by granddaughter, Crystal Renee Smith; brother, James M. Jackson; and sister, Deloris Jackson Powers.